OK gurls, a quick report. Jimmy L is back!!!!!. In tip top form. Looking healthy, rosy-cheeked, and energetic and intellectually as sharp as ever. It was an awesome experience!
More later!

antikitschychick

FANTASTIC news Marshie…am so happy for him :-D

marshiemarkII

Chickie, yes, I will have to be brief on this (sorry Manou), because I do not trust at the moment, that I can protect the young singers from the obsessions of a certain poster, so I will just say that there were some stunning pieces of singing!, not all, but a few ready made stars for the very near future! More I won’t say!

Now Jimmy is still on his automatic Jimmymobile, that towers over everyone, but other than that, he is back to the old form in a big way!. Appears very healthy, with his trademark rosy skin. And above all his towering intellect, that was like a gift from heaven to the young singers. He only conducted three extended scenes (Carmen, Don Giovanni and Cenerentola) as he was also coaching two young conductors, that were mightily impressive sharing conducting duties the rest of the three hour program. But what he conducted was just like in the old days, especially Don Giovanni!!!!. I think we will have Jimmy for a long time, God willing! His upper body appears even strong, compared to when I last saw him close, in 2010! and has even gained some of the weight back, in a healthy way, the problem seems to be the lower extremities, but he manages quite well in the mobile!

It was a very rarefied affair, with Mrs Lindemann and Mercedes Bass, and Jean Volpe, in the audience. Of course Tom Levine, charming and wonderful as ever, and Jimmy’s companion, and the sublime Ken Noda and John Fisher. Matthew Epstein was of course doing some scouting, I am sure. I sat with my dear old friend, who is a member of the German Royal family, and a Met Board member. A glorious affair all around!

Buster

Thanks for the fun report, Marshie, thrilled to hear this!

Often admonished

If you compare Jimmy’s health to those exemplars of the surgeon’s art “Mrs Lindemann and Mercedes Bass, and Jean Volpe, in the audience” you bet he’ll look rosy skinned.

mirywi

If you’re looking for your name ma’am, he dropped it over there.

brooklyndivo

The Gala was great. Anna, was good but not great. Remember Lady was written for a mezzo so the tessitura is lower. I enjoyed the performance but don’t feel she has the agility to really sing this type of role. I never liked her in the Bel Canto roles for the reasons she lack agility where needed. The voice is beautiful and I wish she’d sing some Verdi and leave Bel Canto alone for a while and do more lyric Spinto roles. I notice no one mentioned Domingo, well I will. He was always a short tenor not having the top. The version from Die Walkure was horrible and you could see the struggle in trying to sing this. A real artist would have retired to recitals but Domingo’s ego is so big and vain that he cannot realize the voice is not what it use to be even in Baritone roles. If you know him, please tell him to stop singing opera and stop his bad conducting and just do recitals. This is really sad.

The technology of the theater is 23rd century really the best in the world.

Nerva Nelli

“Remember Lady was written for a mezzo”

I’m confused--or maybe you are.

Neither Marianna Barbieri-Nini (1847) nor Amélie Rey-Balla (1865) was a mezzo. Barbieri-Nini was a famous Bolena and Semiramide who also created the definitely soprano Verdian roles of Gulnara in IL CORSARO and Lucrezia in I DUE FOSCARI. Rey-Balla, a dramatic coloratura, had sung Leonore in the premiere of LE TROUVERE.

Am I missing something-- did Verdi actually have Irene Dalis in mind?

brooklyndivo

Yes, I think you are. The score reads Mezzo. Have you seen the score, I have as having studied Macbeth.

There are moments with a low tessitura by soprano standards, but the Letter scene, the Brindisi, and the Sleepwalking scene are unmistakably in the soprano tessitura. The mezzos that have done the role were either extraordinarily gifted (Ludwig, Zajick) or transitioning to soprano/ zwischenfach (Bumbry, Verrett in the former category; Varnay, Larmore in the latter). All others were true sopranos

la vociaccia

Forgot Dalis; she was a true mezzo, and the infamous d flat proves it….

Did Zajick ever sing the complete role? I heard she toyed with the idea but the abandoned it.

scifisci

Kashania, I don’t think Zajick ever sang the complete role (or did she, somewhere in Spain maybe?), but at any rate she never sang it at her “home” house the Met, which is a real shame, since she sang what may be the best “la luce langue” ever at the tucker gala in 2000. Here she has everything:

la vociaccia

Zajick sang Lady M a couple of times, I think in Spain and maybe Hamburg? I know she said from the start that she was only doing it a couple of times, because she felt too much living “up there” so to speak would hurt her ability to continue to sing her core mezzo roles. Which appears to have been a tremendously smart decision, as at 60 she still has her full range. Listen to her top in this “Mira, O Norma” (in the original key) from last summer

I have to say, I like Dolora a lot, she can be exciting, but the intrinsic sound is not particularly beautiful. Too much metal and not enough velvet… I’ve seen her Azucena twice (19 years apart), Santuzza and Eboli, and she remains a wonder and a powerhouse, but it’s not pretty — so to me, it always seems to be lacking when doing something like Adalgisa e.g.

“Marianna Barbieri-Nini (18 February 1818, Florence -- 27 November 1887, Florence) was an Italian operatic soprano who had an active career in Italy’s major opera houses from 1840 through 1856. . . . She was especially admired in the title roles of Gaetano Donizetti’s Anna Bolena and Gioachino Rossini’s Semiramide. She was also successful in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi, notably creating roles in the world premieres of three of his works. . . . Lucrezia Contarini in I due Foscari (1844, Teatro Argentina), Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (1847, Teatro della Pergola), and Gulnara in Il corsaro (1848, Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi).”

Rowna

I don’t have my scores in front of me (I am in NYC visiting family) but many roles we associate today with mezzos say soprano when you open the binder.

Quanto Painy Fakor

Meanwhile the Americans are busy teaching their kids about the magic of opera, disciplined attention dpsnd, and great acoustics. Vergogna.

Quanto Painy Fakor

I love this Chester Kallman translation of Bluebeard’s Castle

Quanto Painy Fakor

The after-party:

antikitschychick

LMAO Placido is a such opera an media whore…still luv him though :-P

antikitschychick

that should have read *he is such an opera media whore. Typing FAIL :-P

Quanto Painy Fakor

He adds an additional dimension of international validity for the Kirov and in the end Gergiev owes PD bigtime for helping to launch his career in the West. More than that, they are friends.

adina

Well, I finally watched the whole thing. Very enjoyable, and they have a lot to show off about the new theater.

Besides Anna, I loved Olga Borodina -- such luscious low notes. They should do Aida/Amneris, or is that in my dreams!!

Could we get a video of just the “La ci darem la mano?”

Oh, yes, that toothpick (?) had me laughing non stop during one of those arias.

I wouldn’t want to hear Borodina attempting the high notes in Act IV but I would love to hear Netrebko and Borodina sing the Aida/Amneris duet from Act II. That would be something!

skoc211

Can’t say I understand the mostly universal praise. Yes, the voice is gorgeous, but the execution was far from perfect. She sounded out of breath and the coloratura, as usual, was sloppy. I’m reminded of this quote from Callas:

“A singer is no different from an instrumentalist except that we have words. You don’t excuse things in a singer you would not dream of excusing in a violinist or pianist. There is no excuse for not having a trill, for not doing the acciaccatura, for not having good scales. Look at your scores! There are technical things written there to be performed, and they must be performed whether you like it or not.”

I’m just not sure Lady Macbeth is right for Netrebko. I would love to hear her in the all the roles she’s been quite clear she has no interest in singing: Tosca, Cio-Cio-San, etc.

And whoever put her styled her for this performance should be fired.

pobrediablo

Your first sentence defines my thoughts regarding her whole career and stardom…

You know that the bullshit is about to be flung as soon as you hear the phrase “I am reminded of this quote from Callas.”

The singer (for Callas was, like everyone else, a singer) didn’t just appear in the form of a fiery whirlwind and engrave these words unto tablets of stone. No, the context was quite different. She was teaching a master class, and a soprano came in with an aria that had a written trill, and the student did not even attempt the trill. And Callas said, what about the trill, and the girl said, oh, I don’t have one-- like a trill was some kind of funny hat or faddish piece of jewelry. And what you quote is how Callas answered her: don’t say, “Oh, I can’t do that, so I’m not even going to try.” That’s lazy and unmusical.

Note she said “good scales.” Not “perfect scales,” or “scales done exactly the same way as I did them, or Sutherland did them, or Gruberova did them, or however the listener’s favorite dead diva did them.” Just “good scales.” The implication surely is, don’t settle for just your first attempt, continue to practice, continue to refine, continue to work on your craft.

Netrebko never said, “I don’t have a trill,” either explicitly or implicitly. In fact, when a great tide of hysterical queens internationally started moaning about how she was TAKING A DUMP on the HOLY RELIC that is the GRAVE OF LA DIVINA because she DARED to DEFILE the SACRED SCORE of Anna Bolena with her weak or nonexistent trills… well, Netrebko obviously went back into the studio and worked on her shortcomings, because by the time she sang Anna Bolena, the trills were much improved.

Was every single trill technically immaculate, like a little mechanical bell? No, they were not. Was her singing perfect? No, it was not. Did she sing Anna Bolena exactly the way Callas did? No, she did not. But even Callas herself demanded neither perfection nor slavish imitation, the way so many of her “admirers” do so shrilly. Rather, she said, “work on it, try to make it better, don’t just say ‘I can’t’ and think that’s okay.”

It shows no respect for Callas or for art in general to take this artist’s remarks and to misinterpret them to use as a club to bash another artist. Callas wasn’t a bitchy queen, and she is hardly well served by either bitchiness or queeniness in her name.

Pelleas

I love this posting more than almost anything I’ve ever read on this site. Brava, Cieca, and thanks for some sanity.

Talented teen!
Published on Apr 27, 2013
This song was sung in a scholarship competition my senior year of high school (2013). I have been taking lessons for almost four years. I know there’s a few slip ups and wrong pronunciations and such, but seriously give me a break… I’m still learning. I notice every mistake and beat myself up for it, so you don’t need to point it out any. Chances are, I already know about it.”

Maria Malcontent

I come out very differently here.

I think there is very questionable value in using ANY of Callas’ comments in her master classes for any purpose other than the purely rhetorical. I wouldn’t say that the initial poster used them more wrongly than La Cieca does here, because I think in both cases, people are relying on what is at best irrelevance in making arguments about other singers.

By the time of the master classes, Callas was washed up as a singer. That’s not only as a vocalist, but as an interpreter. The master classes had lots of purposes, not least to try to get Callas back some of her self confidence, and back into the public eye, but surely for Callas they were a means of self justification.

She was not by nature or training a pedagogue. Although the master classes have some really wonderful insights and comments about the characters, and sometimes there are flashes of the real ‘her’ in bits of the demonstration, she was self-mythologizing just as much as any other singer giving a master class would do so, and probably more than most, since, to use a phrase Walter Legge not-so-charmingly used about two other past-their-prime singers, the ‘juice had already been squeezed out of the orange.”

I think that ANY interpretation or gloss of this nature is a disservice. Callas left a great legacy, which is about ten years of unique performances -- not in every role, and certainly not in every performance or tournee of performances -- but a unique legacy of mastery and identification with certain roles at her best moments.

THAT is one thing to look to -- not as the HOLY word or the only word or the only interpretation, but that’s the legacy. To a lesser extent, it’s worthwhile to look at HOW she achieved that…..the tuition she had some others, not just singing but in coaching and conducting, the approach to the score itself, the single-mindedness that she seems to have had to throw herself into performance for maybe a decade.

But Callas -- and I can never tell quite how deliberate it may have been -- also left behind a fetish about her, and that’s to me worthless no matter how it’s sifted through.

Callas shouldn’t be used as a model to beat up other singers, and that may be the major point in La Cieca’s post, but by the same token I don’t think
making a different selection of her quotes moves us further along.

Callas was one singer, and one tree in the forest. I think it behooves us all to distinguish the forest from the trees.

I don’t think this remark anyway is particularly special or meaningful; in a way it’s really a pity to get Maria Callas in to do master classes as Juilliard and she has to say things like, “well, you actually have to learn to sing and not just coast on an attractive natural voice,” which is what this remark amounted to.

A big problem with classes in interpretation is that, in a very broad sing, either people can interpret or they can’t. They can either hear intuitively “this sounds right, whereas that doesn’t” — in which case all you really need to do is sing it once for them and then leave them alone — or else they can’t grasp the general structure of what you’re trying to show them, and all you can do is try to get them to parrot as closely as possible.

There are some things of value in Callas’s classes, though as usual with any sort of program of that format, the student singing is generally the one least able to benefit because he’s distracted by having to sing. There is a lot of value, for example, in something she demonstrates a number of times, the idea of keeping the dynamics very flexible when moving through a phrase instead of simply thinking “forte” or “piano” and leaving it at that. But, again, that is an idea, a concept, and just knowing that it can be done or should be done is a very different thing from understanding how and why in a particular piece of music.

I don’t know if Callas quite understood that she had this special and rare gift of very precise instinctive musicality, or, if she did, that other people mostly didn’t have it. But whatever it is, it can’t be taught.

The idea of comparing singers to instrumentalists I would guess Callas got from de Hidalgo, who was a classic coloratura soprano, and of course that voice type is all about technical polish.

luvtennis

Does anyone recall me saying pretty much the same thing about singers and instrumentalists?

On Anna, wow, hard to begin. First, to my ear she sounds to be swimming around the pitch, but I respect that others don’t hear that. The basic timbre is extraordinary in quality, and there were some phrases in this performance that were astonishingly well done. But there were also some sloppy ones, very sloppy. She is such an exciting performer. I guess we have to accept her on her own terms. Though I suspect she will clean this up with more performances of the aria. One worry: Anna wants to sing Verdi too heavily. She is carrying so much weight above the staff and pushing on the bottom. It sounds like hard work, and that is not a good sign when someone is singing Verdi.

Agreed. Gergiev is awful in Verdi. Bulgy, lumpy, graceless. He does not show any sense of line which must always be kept taut in Verdi. Gergiev conducts like he has no idea where the score is going or what it is supposed to look like as a whole. He is much better in Russian music but even there he does not strike me as first rank.

CF:

I don’t want to be hard on Anna. I just dont think she is a “recording” singer. She is best experienced as a performer, probably live. Also, while I think Anna works harder at her craft than some would have you believe, she does not strike me as a perfectionist when it comes to vocal matters. I have never heard her sing anything that sounded completely polished, completely finished if you catch my drift.

MontyNostry

I have never really forgiven Gergiev for a Don Carlo presented at Covent Garden by the Mariinsky company in 2001. It was a kind of perfunctory play-through. And instead of the announced Borodina (then at her peak) as Eboli we got some woman who, quite predictably, ran out of voice in ‘O don fatale’. Some of the other singers were fine, but overall it was a grim evening.

But I did, Cocky, I did. And, though not worthy of a major house, it was better than the debacle in 2001. Do you know why Christine Rice pulled out, by the way? Did she just think better of it?

I have to say that, superb though Harteros (in particular) was, it was Furlanetto who made the evening for me. I have seen him do Filippo before, and his voice in itself is not that stunning (though he knows just what he is doing with it and certainly has all the notes), but it is the style and scale of what he does, and there is just enough ham in in characterisation! His aria was very moving.

Cocky Kurwenal

Agreed re Furlanetto, that was some pretty amazing artistry particularly in Act IV.

What debacle in 2001? Never heard her before, thought she was shocking, and not worthy of a major house. The announcement re Rice basically said it was doctor’s orders, she has some severe infection or something and was told she needed complete vocal rest. How I longed for her last night though!

I thought Harteros was absolutely wonderful. Shame about Kaufmann.

MontyNostry

I meant the 2001 debacle with the Russian mezzo under Gergiev -- nothing to do with Uria-Monzon. What bothered you so much with Kaufmann?

isis00

I co-sign to everything you said here. You are not alone in your thoughts on this!

Quanto Painy Fakor

La Valkyrietta

I am glad Trebs is opening the season with Tatiana and not the Lady. A good English friend of mine, and big fan of the soprano, has the date August 8, when single tickets go on sale, stamped in his memory to order his the first instant. I certainly will try to go myself to opening night if in NYC, and most probably will. Meanwhile, I have been listening to Nilsson because of all this live Wagner fresh in my mind, for comparison. I did like Dalayman. But yesteryear I used to run to the front of the house at the end of some perfrormances and scream “bravo” over and over like a mad woman. Of corse, on stage there was Tebaldi, or Nilsson, and, of course, one does get older.

cosmodimontevergine

I’d like to hear Nina Stemme or Alice Coote’s Lady.

Cocky Kurwenal

Alice Coote as Lady Macbeth? Is that a joke?

zinka

FABULOUS Gala..Anna is amazing……She may not have BIG Chest tones…although she has big chests……Placido shows he is a great TENOR!!!!!!!
I met Galvany when we did Iolanthe and now you have a preview of the Met which will be in two years..Goirgeous opera..We did it with piano..but MY GOD with this chorus it was stunning!!!!!!

A few crab apples on Opera-L ripped Anna….Fooey to them..she was superb as Lady Macbeth,,FIRE!!!!!!

Archaeopteryx

I must admit that I enjoyed Netrebko in this extract. I do not like her very much, finding her mostly uninteresting, but in this she did a pretty good job, very fiercly and passionate. But I find her more convincing in the Cantabile. She Cabaletta isn’t my cup of tea (where is the second verse, after all…).
By the way, what do the Parterrians think of this Lady M?

Podlesmania

OMG! I wasn’t expecting the reading of the letter as a whispering, freaky & scary!!

Bianca Castafiore

Sorry, I had to stop at 2:15, I’m sorry but I find it atrocious. Impossible to listen to.

Larmore’s tone is just too light. And her low notes are surprisingly meatless for a mezzo. All in all, she sounds like she’s having to work hard to fill out the vocal lines.

Quanto Painy Fakor

more of these here too

Quanto Painy Fakor

I love Roberto- but this is shouting and not his best work.

Quanto Painy Fakor

Quanto Painy Fakor

oedipe

QPF,

This is an amateur recording of very poor quality.
I saw one of the Vienna performances (with Garanca, before she cancelled and was replaced by Kasarova) and Alagna sang very well and was deeply moving.
The audience loved him (and Elina): the applause lasted twice as long and was way more enthusiastic than the previous night’s applause for a very dull and routine Boheme with Opolais and Beczala.
The reviews for this Werther run have been unanimously good.

Quanto Painy Fakor

I know that production very well and I already said how much I love Roberto. I also know what I see in the videos and it’s not his best work.

oedipe

Here is a slightly better recording. Makes a big difference:

Quanto Painy Fakor

lucy brown

I love Netrebko, and I think she’s beautiful at every size, but as I watch these clips I’m wondering…is she with child again? Look at the shape…it’s all in the belly and the face. Boy, that would mess up Onegin, wouldn’t it?

Nerva Nelli

“that would mess up Onegin, wouldn’t it?”

DonCarloFanatic

A. She’s a bit old for another, although these days celebrity women do it anyway.
B. She didn’t gain weight in her face during the pregnancy, only after.
C. It might account for her complete assurance in that gown despite the columnar side view.
D. Then again, she’s always physically self-assured.

Whatever it is, you go, Anna. Eat some strudel. Keep on enjoying life.

pobrediablo

She is becoming Caballe.

OperaTeen

By “She is becoming Caballe”, I’m sure you mean that she is cementing her place as one of history’s great singers and singing a wide variety of rep. If that’s not what you mean, then take your nasty and baseless criticism elsewhere.

pobrediablo

For someone who made a career based on her looks, yes, I will criticize her weight.

OperaTeen

I don’t think Caballe went from house to house marketing herself as a famous fat lady that would stand on stage for a fee. Of course, we remember her weight, but don’t we also remember things like the SPECTACULAR high B in Don Carlo or any other of her great vocal successes? Caballe was first and foremost a singer, and that’s exactly what she should have been.

Dunno if she made the career based on her looks, or if others, seduced by her looks, made the career for her. I tend to think it was her charm and acting ability that made the difference in the earlier years.

She seems to be a serious singer with a real voice. IMO, criticism of her looks stems mostly from disappointment because she used to look even more stunning, and now it’s not the same. But she herself has said she’s done with being a girl. And she’s producing some impressive sounds these days.

So, instead of the stripper body, we get better singing. I’d say it’s a fair trade-off.

la vociaccia

Saying Netrebko made a career based on looks gets you on the fast-track to ignoresville. A moldier chestnut you will never find ever. Might as well go in with the whopping “Rysanek sang out of tune” and my personal favorite “Domingo was always a short tenor”

What do these statements have in common? Queen bitchiness of the highest order with little to no basis other than something to whine about while your feet start to hurt in standing room. And no, I am not a Netrebko fan in the slightest; the one time I saw her live (Pasquale; 2006?) I wasn’t terribly impressed.

And I’m (not) sorry, but you can’t have it both ways. None of this “I am going to complain about how looks-casting made her career, and then turn the other cheek and call her too fat”

armerjacquino

Brava, la v. Netrebko is the owner of a major voice who was also lucky enough to be good-looking. No doubt her looks made her path easier but a voice like hers would have got her attention whatever she looked like.

Nerva Nelli

“Domingo was always a short tenor.”

Yeah -- yawn!

This could with truth (however) be said of Flaviano Labo and Salvator Novoa.

Bluessweet

6′ 2″ (1.87 m)

Plácido Domingo, Height

Jamie01

“don’t we also remember things like her SPECTACULAR high B in Don Carlo”

We? OperaTeen, my kids are older than you, and I don’t remember Caballé.

operalover9001

Age (or lack thereof) certainly doesn’t stop people here from reminiscing about the good old days of Ponselle and Lind…

Donna Anna

Are the pit and the stage so deep that singers had to wear earpieces? (Well, some of them: Borodina and Pape).

Bianca Castafiore

Can someone tell me how to download this whole video? Can it be done?

Quanto Painy Fakor

Interestingly, it does not download easily from the Arte-Web feed. But you can capture that with SKIFTA. The embedded version here can be capured with JAKSTA. WONDERSHARE as a version that will capture Youtubies. All of those programs are for APPLE. I don’t do Windows. The complete gala is also hiding on Youtube and elsewhere. I just purchased the great BEAMER app, which is an AIRPLAY video player that does not need to function with ITUNES and plays so many formats via APPLE TV to your big screen TV.

DonCarloFanatic

Intermezzo has it via YouTube, which is an easy download. Flashgot’s good.

Bianca Castafiore

Scusi, what is the opening number?

Quanto Painy Fakor

Prokofiev, Romeo And Juliet: “Montagues And Capulets” sequence.

Bianca Castafiore

Dankeschön, Quanto. I wish there was a listing of numbers and performers. When I heard that piece, I thought, Russian, and rather modern…

Speaking of that “Entrance ofthe Knights” film sequence at the opening of the concert: what’s up with blurry, do-not-adjust-your-set object flying around the Mariinsky II ? It looks for all the world like one of Harry Potter’s quidditch snitches.

Bianca Castafiore

Does anyone know or have heard tenor Will Hartmann?????

armerjacquino

He’s the (excellent) Tamino on the McVicar/ROH ZAUBERFLOTE. I haven’t watched your YT, but maybe it’s from that production?

Bianca Castafiore

Yes, the YT clip is from ROH 2003.

What a lovely voice. Why haven’t I heard of him before? It’s like Quinn Kelsey. Nobody told me about him until the gala on PBS. You Parterriani are not doing a good job of keeping me informed!!!!!

Hartmann also sings Erik. Isn’t that mostly a heldentenor’s domain?

Bianca Castafiore

I see in his bio he also sings Don José.

Cocky Kurwenal

Tamino is classic young Heldentenor territory, and Pelleas of course is shared with baritones, so maybe it’s all part of one coherent master plan? I don’t really recall much in terms of specifics from when I saw him, but the idea of Erik doesn’t surprise me.

Cocky Kurwenal

Saw him as Pelleas in Edinbugh in a wet suit, and in Flute at the ROH. Liked him both times.

Bianca Castafiore

OMG, there’s very few YT excerpts of him but I found this. I hope this was a rehearsal because the Violetta sounds awful, but check out her dance !!!!!!! at 2:24….

armerjacquino

Not a rehearsal, a TV film, judging by the tag. Not heard of the Violetta but her rep seems to include Norma, Salome, Minnie, Tosca and Lucia. Cheryl Studer is back!

Thank you for posting this. I think Zajick sounds tremendous here. Shame about the retake on the final high B but other than that, terrific.

-Ed.

I feel vaguely guilty for not liking Netrebko much. As often as I have seen her and listened to her, she has yet to curl my toes. The great singers linger in the mind; after listening to Netrebko, my thoughts never turn back to her performance. A Russian Sills.

oedipe

The great singers linger in the mind

Interesting notion. Maybe that’s how one becomes “addicted” to some voices, feeling the need to listen to them over and over again. Though I suspect it is a very personal thing: we don’t all react in the same way to a given singer.

-Ed.

I wonder if some of the greats don’t plan it that way. Why are Callas and Caballe and Sutherland and the ambulatory Pavarotti and my dear Zajick lodged in my marrow, to cite a few examples, while Netrebko passes my tympanic membrane and evaporates? Perhaps it’s all just some psychological trick.

No. NO. Being thrust back in one’s seat by a great singer performing a great role is no trick.